Lions Gate Thwarts Claim That TV Show ‘P-Valley’ Copied Play (1)

Lions Gate Entertainment Group’s television series about a Mississippi strip club didn’t infringe the copyright of an Atlanta-based writer’s musical as the works were too dissimilar, a federal judge said.

The show “P-Valley,"which debuted released on Starz in 2020, had substantial differences in plot, setting, and mood from Nicole Giblert-Daniels’ play “Soul Kittens Caberet,” Judge Steven V. Wilson of the US District Court for the Central District of California ruled. Many of the alleged similarities are unprotectable, he said, such as the idea of a story primarily about a strip club or caberet where dancers are predominatly Black, and the ...